PixlBit

This handheld Sonic adventure is decent and fun in many ways

This little Game Gear game was developed by Aspect and published by Sega in 1994. TT is the fourth Sonic game on the Game Gear and the third one developed by Aspect. As such, it is the best of the three, with longer levels and ambitious features. The game is called "Triple Trouble" because Sonic (and Tails), Knuckles, and Nack the Weasel are all after the chaos emeralds. You'll eventually face Knuckles as a boss at the end of zone 5 and you will face-off against Nack in the bonus stages.

When you start the game, you can choose to play as either Sonic or Tails. Once you choose, you have to play as that character for the rest of the game. Both Sonic and Tails can run, jump, and do the spin dash, but they also have unique moves. By pressing Up and A at the same time, Sonic will instantly run fast (without charging); this is helpful since Sonic must gain momentum before getting at a decent speed. By pressing Up and A for Tails, he can fly for quite awhile, which is certainly helpful as well.

There are a total of six zones in the game, each one having two levels and a boss. Obviously, the game cannot perform the fast speed of the Genesis games, but it certainly tries. Levels are filled with springs, loops, and destructible environments. While longer than the previous GG games, the levels are still quite short, but there's plenty of areas to explore if you like that sort of thing. Rings are everywhere for you to collect. The problem is, if you get hit, instead of all your rings coming out, only three or four come out for you to reclaim (another hardware limitation).

Let's break down the different zones in TT: Great Turquiose is the first zone and is very similar to Green Hill Zone. Sunset Park is more of an industrial-type zone. Meta Junglira is a jungle zone (if you couldn't tell). Robotnik Winter is an ice zone, complete with snowboarding! Tidal Plant is the most unqiue and also tricky zone; it's an underwater factory. Finally, Atomic Destroyer is your typical final zone, an ominous factory of sorts.

The level design is what you'd expect from a Sonic game. In fact, there's not much to differentiate it from the Genesis games except for a few things. TT has two special items: the spring (which lets you bounce very high) and the snowboard (only in the ice levels), which lets you go really fast. Sadly, these items are used only a couple times throughout the whole game. The most creative part of the game is Tidal Plant, in which you must get caught in a giant bubble so you can float to the top of an underwater area; along the way, watch out for spikes (they're everywhere!). Tidal Plant's second act especially used this mechanic to great affect. The final zone, Atomic Destroyer, can be confusing as it's very maze-like; you have to shoot around in four-directional cannons in order to find the right spot, which means you'll be shooting around in the same cannons until you figure it out.

The boss fights, while easy, can also be frustrating. For example, the boss of Sunset Park is a train. Before reaching the front of the train, you run along the top for a long time, jumping over gaps and jumping at enemies who fly overhead. When you finally reach the boss, the screen moves back and forth, meaning you have to jump at just the right time in order to hit the front of the train. Honestly, though, the other bosses are quite easy and certainly more simple than the train boss.

Each zone has one chaos emerald hidden inside it; if you find it, you go into a timed bonus stage, which will be either a torturous maze or a 3D flight sequence. Here you'll face-off against Nack the Weasel, a treasure hunter who looks a lot like Indiana Jones (except he's a weasel). Should you succeed in beating the level, Nack will show up and make a fool of himself, then you can grab the chaos emerald. If you beat the game without getting all the emeralds, Nack will come on screen and trip, dropping the ones you didn't get (indicating he got them) and the words "Try Again" will stare at you. If you get them all, then you get to watch the ending.

Final Verdict--4 Stars: Recommended

While not perfect, Sonic: Triple Trouble is probably the best Sonic game on the Game Gear. The level design is pretty good, with some creative things thrown in. The game isn't long or difficult, but if you want to collect all the chaos emeralds, you'll find a real challenge on your hands. The game is available to download on the 3DS Virtual Console. If you want oldschool Sonic on the go, you can't go wrong with Triple Trouble.

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