SegaSonic Bros. is a Falling Blocks Puzzle Game designed by Fukio Mitsuji of Bubble Bobble fame. Although planned for a full-scale release in arcades in 1992, it didn't perform well during location-testing and was quietly withdrawn by Sega. The game went completely forgotten outside of rumors for over two decades until information on it was disclosed in 2016 by arcade collector ShouTime. It was finally showcased to the public at the California Extreme event two years later in 2018, followed by a ROM dump on December 4th, 2018.
During gameplay, 2×2 spheres of blue, red, yellow, or white Sonics fall into the screen and must be erased for as long as possible as you'd expect. To do that, the player must build a line of a single color such that it either surrounds a group of spheres or completes a path across any two edges of the board. The game's speed increases as time goes on, and surviving for around 20 minutes until Level 100 is one of the game's two goals. This being Sonic, you can also clear the game very quickly via the alternate and difficult method of maxing out your score by clearing nearly the entire board at once several times in a row.
Dr. Eggman is featured as something of a mascot at the middle of the screen who is zapped everytime the player makes a successful move. Chaos Emeralds appear as a special screen-clearing level every 10 levels.
The game is the origin of the recurring colored sphere items that have been known to fans since the Special Stages from Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
This game features the following tropes:
- Astral Finale: The final nine levels of the game are set in outer space.
- Canceled Video Game: As a result of its poor location-test, Sega has not acknowledged this game in any official Sonic media. This extends to Sonic's eponymous brothers, who have never been seen or acknowledged since.
- Cap:
- The single-player mode ends when the player either gets over 9999990 points or clears level 99, the latter requiring the player to survive for approximately thirty minutes.
- One of the methods of winning in Versus mode is by scoring 300,000 points... which is strange, since it becomes just a race of recklessly slamming spheres into the board and getting 1 million at the third row first.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Sonic's red, yellow, and white brothers have never been seen again, though Ray and Mighty from SegaSonic the Hedgehog are pretty much just slightly altered versions of the yellow and red ones.
- Combos: Chains don't affect how much a given group of spheres is worth, but back-to-back Clean Up bonuses do receive a score multiplier.
- Comedic Sociopathy: When you score anything, Eggman is sent flying in shock with a satisfying electric noise.
- Critical Annoyance: An alarm noise goes off once you're three lines away from a Game Over.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: When most people figure out the game's basic rules, they play as they would in any other puzzler, clearing spheres as they please and trying to build chains. However, that is actually detrimental to the game's goal, as small group clears and traditional chains are worth little points. The one thing it rewards is back-to-back full screen clears, and greatly at that.
- Difficult, but Awesome: It just feels good to clear over half of the screen at once. You get a ton of bells and whistles with Eggman getting zapped and possibly a brief full screen animation and a score multiplier for leaving nothing left. The maximum amount of points you can get in a move is a whooping 2 million plus multipliers on the second row, but if you mess up just once or the correct spheres don't come you're a goner.
- Difficulty by Acceleration: The longer you last, the quicker the spheres fall. Every ten levels, the speed is briefly reset so you can catch a break.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The theme that plays from level 40-49 and 90-99 got used on the "Get Blue Spheres" Special Stage from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, which involves converting the edges of sphere groups for extra points like in this game.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Wait, Sonic has brothers?
- Evil Laugh: Eggman laughs when the game ends. It's probably the first time he ever did his Santa Claus Laugh in a game.
- Game-Over Man: Eggman juggles the Chaos Emeralds just like in the bad ending of Sonic 1 once the player loses or wins.
- Guide Dang It!: The game features an Attract Mode tutorial that's both demonstrated and illustrated, but some people still manage to not understand the rules because of how unusual they are. Furthermore, something important the game does not explain is the fact it has two goals one can meet to clear it.
- Logo Joke: The game features the same Sega logo and shout from Sonic 1.
- Luck-Based Mission: To clear the game via the score method, you "just" have to correctly guess at which point it will be possible to perform a Clean Up or at least a third row clear and get it right several times in a row.
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Nintendo Hard: The game has somewhat complex rules for a falling spheres puzzle and reaching the limit of either score or speed level is a tall request. Similarly to Kirby's Star Stacker, it can appear easy to clear the whole screen in a few moves but clogging it beyond repair is even more so: it is common to create situations where the sides of the play field contain little to no usable Sonics and it's not easy to get more Sonics inside without also piling up the center six columns in the process as all the spheres the player drops only come in a 2x2 square. - No Fair Cheating: There's a pause function coded in, likely for a then-planned Sega Genesis port. It turns all spheres on the board greyscale.
- No Plot? No Problem!: The game has no story and doesn't give any context for the red, yellow, and white Sonics. Unused sprites in the data do hint at an Excuse Plot for the single player mode about rescuing Sonic's friends.
- Oddball in the Series: A Falling Blocks puzzle of all things about good ol' Sonic and that early on the franchise's life. But unlike with Sonic Eraser, one can tell the developers put effort into making the game's aesthetics and mechanics fit the series. You can clear spheres by tracing curves around the screen and there's potential for speedy full playthoughs in a time where games in the genre rarely had an end goal.
- Palette Swap: Sonic is curiously depicted as a brother of triplets. Later on, a white/light blue Sonic comes up as well to increase the difficulty.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: While the red Sonic up there on the title screen certainly catches the eye, the original ironically appears stoic by comparison.
- Shock and Awe: By clearing Sonics, players can launch Dr. Eggman out of his seat in the center of the screen with a huge electric shock. Bigger clears shoot him even further up.
- Smart Bomb: The Chaos Emerald block wipes all lines over it, so you must have an empty column available for it to be useful. It also awards very little points even if you manage to land it on the bottom of the matrix.
- Some Dexterity Required: Speedrunning the game isn't just about luck. You have to avoid scoring anything that's not a Clean Up, and it is, ironically, awfully easy to do so by accident.
- A Winner Is You: Should you get 9999990 points or overcome level 99, the game ends with the following message:Congratulations! Thank you for your playing!! 9999990! Counter stop!/Level 99 clear!! You are super player!!
