The Hacky Center

Since everybody's up in arms over lack of Megamix rankings due to events beyond my control, I'm making filler. Deal with it.

August 31st was the deadline for Sonic Retro's Hacking Contest 2008. This is usually when the most prestigious hacks come out of the closet and release public betas -- however, this year almost nobody with a big-name hack wanted to show their work to the public, so there were very few public releases. The best of those that did surface, however, are on Sonic Retro's front page.

In honor of the two ROMs of awesome that surfaced along with mine, I'm opening up rankings for the finished parts of these hacks as a change of pace from the lolity of the last bunch of hacks RPG added to the site *shot*. A quick breakdown:

Sonic 1 Pixel Perfect
This is a comprehensive art and layout edit of Green Hill Zone by JcFerggy and NovaWizard. Nova's level layout is extremely flowing, and JC's art takes a cue from Sonic 1 Megamix with windows poking from the sides of the landscape. Spindash has been added, as have dynamic palettes and new loops.

Sonic 2 Advanced Edit
By Rika Chou, this is possibly the best-known Sonic 2 hack, and for good reason. The art is very abstract and eye-catching, level layout bounces erratically between speed sections, platforming, and downright cheap setups --sorry Rika, I'm opinionated :( -- and there's a whopping six acts up for show. Level selecting to Mystic Cave, however, reveals a fourth zone nearly completed. Before anybody asks: no, the Casino Night acts under construction aren't going on the rankings.

Sonic 2 Retro Remix
Call it a shameless plug if you must, but I'm not listening to you. After DNXDelta and I were kicked off left something involving not working for the Pixel Perfect team, this hack spawned from the oozy remains. DNX has a completely different art direction than Pixel Perfect does, and level layouts... well, it's not fair for me to talk up my own, k?

Okay, compete pplz.